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Discovery
New Analysis Method Ranks National Science Foundation As Tops For Computer Science Funding
New data shows NSF has the highest ranking among national
and international agencies for funding high-impact computer and
information science research.
A Penn State research team analyzed the
acknowledgements of 335,000 computer science documents stored within a
computer and information science archive.
When the final counts were tallied, the “most acknowledgements” honor
went to the National Science Foundation (NSF) with 12,287, 2.6 times
more than the next most-acknowledged entity.
When the scientists continued probing and analyzed just the top 100
most-cited papers in the database, NSF again scored on top with 26
acknowledgements.
The work, appearing in a Dec. 21 article in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences,
describes a new, automated method to analyze the acknowledgment section
of research articles for acknowledged funding agencies, corporations,
universities and individuals.
If scientific research leads to a new discovery, a
researcher spreads the news and receives due credit by publishing the
results in an appropriate scientific journal or magazine.
These scientific articles often contain “acknowledgements,” used by the
authors to recognize individuals or entities facilitating the research.
Common acknowledgments pay tribute to fruitful
scientific discussion, technical support or editorial comments as well
as the funding source supporting the research. Researchers rightfully thank those providing their “bread and butter.”
Other U.S. federal agencies scoring high on this
list of funding influences for computer science research were the
Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), Office of Naval
Research (ONR) and National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). The company most often acknowledged was IBM.
“This research underscores the contribution of
federal investments in cutting-edge information technology research,”
said Lee Giles, one of the paper’s authors. “Continued long-term
investment by NSF in our nation’s computer science programs is
paramount to keep pace with increasing globalization.”
NSF—the primary supporter of computer science
research conducted at universities—provided 56 percent of the total
federal investment in computer science research to the academic
community in 2001, according to Science and Engineering Indicators 2004.
And who was acknowledged in the paper that published these studies? NSF, of course!
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